German Army List

When starting to play a new game system, or when starting a new army within a currently played system, it is generally considered good practice to write an army list first, so that your purchasing and painting is goal focused rather than being based on the 'Ooh, shiny!' method.

Amazingly, I did actually follow this piece of advice with Flames of War (unlike with my 6,500 point strong Dark Angels successor chapter for WH40k!). Having made the decision to purchase the Open Fire! starter set due to its quality and cheap price, I then moved onto finding a list that used all of the bits included in the box, and which 'felt right' thematically.

The German forces in Open Fire! consist of:

 - 2 Grenadier platoons
 - 2 7.5cm PaK40 anti-tank guns
 - 3 StuG G assault guns

The Open Fire! starter box has 2 x 800 point starter forces, an Allied Armoured Company and a German Grenadierkompanie

The British/American forces contained in the box are targeted towards Operation Market Garden, which took place in Holland in September 1944. This is great for me as I am particularly interested in XXX Corps, having read the autobiography of Lt. General Sir Brian Horrocks, Officer Commanding XXX Corps. So my plan for an allied force had always been focused towards a Guards Armoured Division force. To that end, I needed a German list which complemented the Allied list, i.e. not a mid-war North African or Eastern Front army list!

Essentially, then, my force would have to come from one of the two German army books covering the Normandy campaign (Atlantik Wall) or Operation Market Garden itself (Bridge by Bridge). I was helped along the way by this blog - FOW-lists - and very quickly narrowed my choices down to the following:

Heer (Army)

Grenadierkompanie from Kampfrguppe Chill (I'm not making that up!) or 59 Infanteriedivision from the Bridge by Bridge book

Panzergrenadier Kompanie from Panzer Lehr or 2. Panzerdivision from Atlantik Wall

Waffen-SS

Kampgruppe Spindler or KG Arnheim from Bridge by Bridge

Panzergrenadierkompanie from one of the SS Divisions in Normandy (probably from 1. or 2. Division as I prefer their special rule, although 9th, 10th and 12th Divisions are represented in the book as well)

Choices, choices!

I must admit, when I got to this stage one thing did play on my mind. Was it OK to paint an SS unit? I've heard that some people in the hobby have a problem with playing against people running SS armies and I wondered if this was a reasonable stance to take. My view is this:

I am painting little plastic/metal men, and am running a ruleset/army list that the game designers (i.e. Battlefront) have determined follows a TO&E that was used by the SS in WWII. I happen to like the list as it uses the particular miniatures that I want to paint. This doesn't mean I am a hate-filled loony, and nor does it mean my little plastic men are hate-filled loonies either. If in doubt I refer you to the movie/musical 'The Producers', written and directed by Mel Brooks!

Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrell and Nathan Lane perform the 'Guten Tag Hop-Clop' in the 2005 film version of 'The Producers'

Anyway, having reviewed all of the options, I eventually came to the realisation that the German forces in the Bridge by Bridge book correctly reflected the makeup of the German forces fighting during Market Garden, i.e. a hodge-podge of units thrown together from whatever was available, and not a 'standard' OOB unit. This made the regular Army lists difficult to translate out of the Market Garden theater into another. The units with the most cohesion during this operation were the SS units, however, and their army lists bore most resemblance to the lists in the Normandy campaign. So, the conclusion was that painting an SS force would give me the most flexibility in using either book (Atlantik Wall or Bridge by Bridge)... and indeed the flexibility to use the various other German Army late war books for other theaters of operation (such as Grey Wolf for fielding a 1944 Eastern Front army). So an SS army it is...

On to the List!

So here we go, with a 2000-point list, from P 196 of the Atlantik Wall book... The force is rated as Fearless Veteran

Headquarters
HQ (130)
 - Company Command SMG team
 - Company 2ic Panzerfaust SMG team
 - 2 x additional Panzerschreck teams

Combat Platoons
Compulsory Panzergrenadier Platoon (235)
 - Panzerfaust SMG HQ section plus 3 squads, 3-ton trucks

Compulsory Panzergrenadier Platoon (235)
 - Panzerfaust SMG HQ section plus 3 squads, 3-ton trucks

Heavy Platoon (150)
 - HQ section with 2 machine gun sections (4 x MG42 teams)

Weapons Platoons
Mortar Platoon (150)
 - HQ Section with 2 GW34 8cm mortar sections (4 x GW34 mortars)

Heavy Mortar Platoon (185)
 - HQ Section with 2 sGW43 12cm mortar sections (4 x sGW43 mortars)

Light Anti-tank Gun Platoon (125) *
 - HQ Section with 2 7.5cm PaK40 anti-tank guns, 3-ton trucks

Support Platoons
Assault Gun Platoon (325)
 - 3 StuG G self-propelled assault guns

Panzer Platoon (300)
 - 3 PzIVH medium tanks

Heavy Panzerspah Platoon (80)
 - 1 Panzerspah Patrol (2 Sd Kfz 231 - 8-rad)

AA Gun Platoon (85)
 - HQ Section with 3 2cm FlaK38 AA guns, 3-ton trucks

* - see the 'Lessons from the Front' errata, as this was originally misprinted as Armoured Platoon in the book

The list has 10 platoons plus an HQ section, but in practice I will make use of the German ability to combat attach weapons platoons by attaching the heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns directly to the Panzergrenadier platoons, reducing them to 8 platoons overall.

The list can also form the basis for a 2000-point Panzerkompanie list, with the removal of the mortars, HMGs and AT guns, and the addition of some more tanks and some rocket artillery to take over the bombardment duties of the mortars. Next time we'll have a look at the Allied army list that will be going up against the Germans!